Midsea

Agathour

High Pontifex of the Elven Empire turned Lich

Description:

When Faeron, GFoot, Grinchole, Felix and Grobble re-entered the Toppled Temple of Elvenport they solved the five-century mystery behind the Blind God’s destructive rampage on Midsea. They accomplished this through discovering that Agathour, the High Pontifex of the Elven Empire, had not perished when the Blind God visited destruction on his cathedral five centuries ago. Their tense talk with the Undead Agathour revealed a key secret in how Midsea became a world at war.

Agathour figures prominently in the history of Midsea as one of the architects of the Elven Empire. It was he who gave the justification to Malacor, the regent of Elvenport, to do away with the High Council of the Elven Alliance and create an Elven Empire run by a Red Crowned King.

Agathour began as a priest of the Fey who worked his way into being the Chief Cleric of Elvenport. An office Malacor created so one Minister of his choice would oversee all the other faiths and temples in the city. Agathour used this position to learn both the sacred and profane mysteries of all the faiths.

When the Orc wars became all-consuming for the loosely structured Elven Alliance Agathour convinced the High Council to elect a warlord who could rule by decree. He did this by resurrecting a millennia old fey institution called the “Red Crowned King”.

The Red Crowned King was an ancient tribal title used only in the most desperate wars. This ruler held the supreme authority of a dictator. Many of the Elven lords had grown tired of listening to the demands of humans, dwarves and other allied races while fighting the growing Orc threat. They wanted to go back to a time when humanity was just a collection of tribes moving across Midsea and not a people whose population and power seemed destined to outstrip their own.

Even then Nalia, Queen of the Frost Elves, spoke against this and split the council until Agathour cast the deciding vote that made Malacor the Red Crowned King of Midsea.

After the tragedy of Visnor- City of the Shunned the Red Crowned King proclaimed Agathour the High Pontifex for the Elven Empire. Informally called the “Cleric of Clerics” it was essentially an overlord of all religious faiths. Agathour used being High Pontifex to gather magical texts like the Tome of Time to unearth Arcanum about the Chthonic Ones, ancient cosmic powers that evolved into the gods of Midsea.

It was he and the Red Crowned King who summoned the Blind God to destroy humanity. This summoning of a power beyond understanding brought destruction on the Elven Empire. The Temple of Elvenport was razed and the Blind God then traveled Midsea bringing black fire and brutal stone breaking force on the cities of Midsea.

Agathour, trapped in the cursed Temple, first fed on his own clergy to survive. He then constructed a phylactery to contain his soul so he would no longer require regular sustenance and provide a way to feed on the souls of others.

The survivors of the attack unwittingly aided Agathour in this terrible endeavor. They began a practice of using the deadly curse that killed all who entered the Toppled Temple as a means to execute criminals. Agathour ate the souls of these who were dropped into the cracks of the Toppled Temple for five hundred years, slowly turning himself into a powerful Lich as Elvenport recovered and began to thrive again.

Agathour related all this to the adventurers when he thought they were decedents of the Empire who came to free him. Realizing they weren’t he attacked them.

The battle was hard fought. GFoot used his bow of the Border Guard to strike Agathour from a distance while Grobble slashed him with the meteoric sword Red Razor. Faeron and Felix cast spells that disrupted Agathour’s defensive illusions.

Realizing he was losing the battle Agathour desperately cast his most deadly spell and slew Faeron, sending his soul into the phylactery to feed on later. Grinchole, turned to ape form by Felix, then crushed Agathour, whose soul also went to the phylactery so as to regenerate.

Felix, refusing to let Faeron perish, single-mindedly searched Agathour’s lair and found the phylactery along with the The Tome of Time .Quickly marshalling the knowledge of Bettina, the power of the Tome of Time, and wresting the magic rings from Cedric, Felix rushed to resurrect Faeron.

The determined Gnome divined the existence of a magical pool next to the Gates of Visnor and dropped the Phylactery into its depths. Faeron, released from the Phylactery, appeared as if time had doubled back on itself, but Agathour was also released. Faeron, Bettina and the party then were all teleported back to Al Baku as Felix fearlessly pushed Cedric’s rings to their breaking point.

The party had escaped death, resurrected Faeron, recovered an ancient artifact and uncovered the reason for the Blind God’s destructive actions. They also unwittingly returned Agathour to the world of Midsea. The adventurers’ actions now secured themselves in the annals of Midsea as more than famous visitors from another world. They were now living legends whose lives are tied to Midsea’s future.

Agathour has been very busy since his release from the Toppled Temple. He appeared in the City of Bex and caused a mudslide, uncovering a cave covered in Visnorian Glyphs. A group of adventurers, hired by Alexandra the Summoner, entered the cave. These adventurers: a Sorceress named Turibel, a monk called Greysworn, a druid called Painter and Edwin a Paladin of Vengeance along with Aerdin a Paladin of Lathander saved many citizens of Bex by defeating roaming gangs and the horrors of the cave.

Agathour conspired with The Meddler in the mountains of Bex and began a campaign of attacking the off-worlders.

It finally came to Raymond the Hellhanded killing Agathour with Agathour’s own sentient blade. He did this after Kona the Truthseeker, Amand the Lucky and Sir Gavin of the Talking Sword and Whispering Shield brought the Elven Lich to his most weakest.